Saaya Irie

Name: Saaya Irie
Chinese Name: 入江紗綾
Profession: Actress
Birthday: November 15, 1993 (age 13)
Born at: Fukuoka, Japan

Saaya Irie (Irie Saaya, born November 15, 1993, in Fukuoka-ken, Japan) is a Japanese actress, seiyū, teen idol and singer. Her stage name is simply her given name, Saaya. Her height is 150cm (as of September 2006).

She has recently been appearing in numerous films, radio, and television programs including the recent live action TV drama adaptation of the Jigoku Shoujo series. She has also done voice work, appearing in the recent anime OVA Kyo no Gononi as Chika Koizu. She was formerly a member of Japanese musical group Sweet Kiss before it disbanded on May 12, 2006, to be replaced by the group Chase.

She became well-known for her provocative poses in bikinis. In May 2005, during the anti-Japanese demonstrations in China and Korea, pictures of Saaya taken by Japanese photographer Garo Aida captioned (loosely translated) “Please listen carefully to what I say my lovely Chinese brothers, please stop the riot!” were posted on a Chinese forum by a third party, along with a message pleading for better bilateral relations between China and Japan.

Tabloid stories soon followed with raunchy headlines like “Busty 11-Year-Old Girl with F Cup Eases Cross-Strait Relations”. (An F cup in Japan is roughly equivalent to a C-D cup in the United States.) Her bikini pictures soon received widespread distribution over the World Wide Web. In the aftermath of this incident, her manager said they will refrain from having more bikini photoshoots of Saaya; but in her second DVD, “Little Legend”, Saaya was once again wearing a bikini.

Many tabloid stories claim that her pictures and words of peace led to a reduction in anti-Japanese attitude. This claim is highly speculative, as no respectable Japanese daily has reported anything at all about Saaya. This rumor first appeared in the pages of “Shunkan Bushun”, a second category magazine.

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